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While I think we are all appreciative of the contributions Pau Gasol has made since he came to the Lakers. The loyalty factor must be thrown aside here. Pau's time L.A. has finally ran it's course and the front office would be best served to move him sooner rather than later. While getting star quality players for him is unlikely in a trade....We must accept that Pau too is now only a average player at this point. In the realm bigs he is still adequate, But he is not the guy who is going to make or break a team's chances to win. When they tried to trade him for CP3, And it fell through. They should have tried to find the next best deal at that time.

While I think we are all appreciative of the contributions Pau Gasol has made since he came to the Lakers. The loyalty factor must be thrown aside here. Pau's time L.A. has finally ran it's course and the front office would be best served to move him sooner rather than later. While getting star quality players for him is unlikely in a trade....We must accept that Pau too is now only a average player at this point. In the realm bigs he is still adequate, But he is not the guy who is going to make or break a team's chances to win. When they tried to trade him for CP3, And it fell through. They should have tried to find the next best deal at that time.

Yea that's when his value was at an all time high.. Should have definitely taken advantage of it.

Earlier today, a report surfaced claiming that the Lakers were, once again, listening to offers for their talented Spaniard.

Then, on Bill Simmons’ podcast that was released just hours later, Simmons suggested the trade of Pau Gasol and Steve Blake to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Luol Deng and Carlos Boozer. Simmons was apparently just plucking an idea out of the air as he thought it would make sense for both teams, yet ESPN Los Angeles’ Ramona Shelburne, who was a guest on Simmons’ show, said that he actually might be on to something:

SHELBURNE: I think you’re probably on the right track with that, Bill. I like the trade for both teams.
What you do essentially is give Pau a chance to have a different team – first of all, I don’t know how [Tom Thibodeau] is going to react to him defensively – but I think Derrick Rose clearly needs a number two. He needs another guy on that roster who can score. This year’s out the window but you give Pau a chance to establish himself there. I know he wants to get to a place where the team is invested in him.

It would make sense for Chicago, it would make sense for the Lakers.

The one thing the Lakers are doing though, every single trade they talk about has to maintain their flexibility in 2014, ’15 and ’16, so that trade, in a lot of ways, make sense as Luol Deng becomes the guy you got in 2014. You’re probably not going to have to give him a max spot, which leaves you a little more room to go after somebody at the mid-level and you maintain your flexibility in 2015 and ’16 because Boozer comes off the books next year.

It makes a lot of sense, and I think it’s probably what both teams are discussing right now.

SIMMONS: Oh! I just made that up on the spot. You think that’s a real trade?

SHELBURNE: I think so.

This isn’t the first time that Gasol has been linked to the Bulls, and at first glance you’d imagine that Chicago would no longer be interested in his services.

However, with the Bulls possibly preparing to let Deng walk this coming summer, it could be worth them taking a shot on Gasol and, in the process, free themselves from the last year of Boozer’s deal without using the one-time amnesty provision.

The Lakers would lose the majority of their cap space this coming summer if they decided to re-sign Deng (who’ll probably be a target of theirs anyway) but, with Boozer’s deal expiring in 2015, the purple and gold would probably still have enough room to chase Kevin Love in the 2015 off-season.

Can't believe they are actually considering a pau and blake trade for boozer and deng... chicago would never do that (or should). The only team I think that would highly benefit from having Pau, and probably wants him, is Memphis..

Can't believe they are actually considering a pau and blake trade for boozer and deng... chicago would never do that (or should). The only team I think that would highly benefit from having Pau, and probably wants him, is Memphis..

ARE YOU NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i would trade pau and blake for Dang and booz in a frickin heart beat. we aint gettin no one in 2014 free agency anyway. make the damn trade already

We'd be absorbing some $6M in that trade and Boozer's contract would only leave 10M to resign Deng, Wes, X-Man, Hill, Farmar... next season. I'm not sure it makes sense for the Lakers to be honest. I think we'd be better off letting Pau's contract expire because let's be real, no one is going to trade picks and 15M in expiring contracts for Pau at this point.

If there are no free agents worth the cap space next year we might as well stay under the cap for one year and keep our options open. I know Boozer expires in 2015, but I'd much rather keep our current young players for one more year than spend that money in Boozer

Not sure how legit it is, but I would welcome any pau trade, the cry baby has to go.

even if that trade screws our future even more? what if Deng walks come 2014? we are stuck with Boozer's crappy contract for one more year and would probably lose Young, Farmar, Johnson, Hill and/or Henry
Not to mention kobe will be turning 37 by then with just one more year contract